Incompatible combinations
by jilyrox
Summary: Even the Hogwarts Ghosts knew better than to come within a five-mile radius of Lily Evans and James Potter when they argued. But what changed in seventh year? Exactly how did these two go from rivals to soulmates? Starts from the Snape incident up to ver Image belongs to Viria. Reviews will be framed and carefully preserved for all eternity
1. Chapter 1

Change can be annoying. Irritating. Sometimes, even boring. But not every time. Sometimes change makes you happy. Joyful. Or even downright jolly. So it's either this side of the coin or that. But very rarely, maybe once in a _purple_ moon, you never know which side it is. Until the very end, you're going to be clueless about whether to love change or hate change. And such was the case with Miss Lily Evans.

If until the age of eleven you called lily a witch, she would just glare at you for the entire day or maybe even more until you apologized. But if you said that at eleven years and one weak, she would just grin conspiratorially and slowly whisper , "Are you like me as well?"

She knew from the very start that she was…. _Different_ from the rest. No one else could make candle flames dance according to their will. No one else could turn Jimmy Price's hair a deep shade of magenta when he picked on them. But she wasn't scared. Because then, her world consisted of only three people. Her mom her dad and her sister, who was also her best friend and partner in most crimes, Petunia who was also fondly known as Tuney. To her, it was only their opinion that mattered. Her parents had never really paid attention to all of this but petunia hated her _specialities._ But for once Lily never cared about what Tuney had to say because she knew from the very start that Tuney was just jealous. Life was pretty much normal for the Evans,(if you include hair turning blue and doors flying off their hinges) until that one fated day . The day Lily realized how much her life was going to _change._

The day had started normally enough. It was a Saturday and she had no school. She was frolicking in the sun with tuney, when she saw a tabby cat staring intently at her. She called, "Tuney, come look at this cat!" She reached out to pet it .to her utmost surprise, the cat, instead of basking in all the attention, started giving Lily something that resembled a stern look. "Are you sure I'm not dreaming? "Asked Petunia. "She just gave me a teacher look!" Something in Lily's brain prompted her to mutter, "Not a teacher, a professor. "What?" Snapped Petunia, bringing Lily back to reality. She shook her head, mystified at what she had just said herself. She picked up a flower and twirled it in her hands, changing its color from red to white, before noticing that the cat had vanished. Suddenly she had the strongest of feelings that she was being stared at. Intently. 'Could it be?" She wondered. Then she shook her head. Severus Snape had long since stopped hidings from her. They were friends now. And she was right. Snape was not there but she didn't notice a tabby cat, the same one for that matter, staring at her from behind a bush. That's when she had the strongest urge to rush back home. She knew something was happening. Something big. A few minutes later, both the girls were home, when it all happened. The cat found inside their home, its transformation to a human, the long talk between her parents and the cat/professor and the most amazing part of it all. The letter. The acceptance letter. The letter that allowed her to go to Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. And it was not long before she bid her parents and Tuney goodbye and ran through the magic barrier, with her best friend Snape right behind her. Until then it was all fantastic. Until she boarded the train and as fate would have it, sat in the same compartment as James Potter. That's when she believed her bad luck had swung into action.

(5 years later)

"But I'm sure I'm going to fail! I know it, I can feel it, there is no point in telling me otherwise!" said an extremely distraught Lily." Ha-ha very funny. Remind me to laugh next time alright?" scoffed Mary MacDonald. "No I'm serious! Lily wailed "Lily Evans, fail? Yeah right. That'd probably happen when McGonagall and Dumbledore waltz together." Said Marlene Adams. "Well I wouldn't put it past them you know." Said Alice Fortesque smirking, causing Lily to groan. "You know I thought mates were supposed to help each other. A fat lot of good that's doing to me." Lily grumbled, making all the girls chuckle. Mary and Lily were Muggle born, Marlene was half blood and Alice was pure blood. Yet Lily felt odd some times. Mary had beautiful, wavy brown hair that fell up to her hip. She was slightly plump and extremely good natured. The first words that would come to your mind when you were asked to describe Mary, they would probably be beautiful amber eyes, gentle and kind nature and extremely helpful. But that was not the case with lily's other friend Marlene Adams. Bold, rash and loud would just begin to describe Marlene. A part of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, people usually steered clear of her, unless they wanted to be hit by a jelly leg or tentacle growing hex. But her black eyes would betray something else altogether. She was pretty sensitive although not as much as Mary, and hated being insulted. Alice Fortesque on the other hand seemed just…. _normal_. Neutral. She modestly blushed at compliments and stood steadfast against criticism. The blond haired, blue eyed, perfect face girl was good at academia but not as good as Marlene or Lily. Lily always felt odd because of multiple factors. She was a redhead, wavy, long red hair which she despised and was pale so if she was ill, she looked almost corpse-like, no blood in her face. She believed she was average at studies (which was complete rubbish. She was brilliant.). The only parts she liked about herself were her eyes. Green, a beautiful shade of green they were. But they clashed so horribly with her hair (that's what _she_ thought). She almost wanted to turn her hair brown with magic, but she knew better than to do that. She was quite good at charms; she had to admit and was the favorite of their charms professor, Professor Flitwick and pet of their potions professor, Professor Slughorn. But that was not what made her stand out. It was the fact that the most popular boy at school, whom she believed to be an eternally annoying idiot, had suddenly started fancying her. And he had been concocting the most ridiculous ways to ask her out. She had refused several times, but it bugged her to be asked out thrice a week. Girls went green-eyed with envy, but lily never understood what the fuss was all about. To her, James Potter was a prat.

Lily was broken away from her train of thoughts by a loud exclamation from Alice. "What in the name of Merlin is going on down there?" Lily turned, following her gaze. And within seconds, she was striding across the grass from the lake to the tree where Snape was being suspended upside down. Livid with fury, she shouted "Leave him alone!" She could sense people shaking their heads, warning her it was a bad idea but she just couldn't leave Severus. "Evans!" grinned Potter, jovially acknowledging her. Sirius Black gave her a curt nod. But she didn't respond. She just repeated, "Leave him alone!" "I will Evans, if you'll go out with me." Potter said, with that stupid grin still plastered on his face. Lily's mouth dropped open for a fraction of a second. He would pull this on her, in such a situation? But she collected her demeanor and calmly said, "I wouldn't go with you if it were a choice between you or the squid." She had just finished, when she registered a flash of light, and a gash across James' cheek. He looked up in fury. And soon Severus was hanging upside down again. "Just leave him alone, why don't you?!" "Alright. You're lucky Evans was here, _Snivellus._ " And Severus flopped onto the ground. Lily was just about to move towards Sev, when he spat out "I don't need help from filthy little _Mud bloods_ like her!" Immediately a silence fell upon the entire clearing. She barely heard Potter roaring something about an apology and could also see that Marlene was pushing through everyone to get to her, but that was all. For a minute her heart had stopped beating. She couldn't digest the fact that her first friend, her best friend, whom she fondly called Sev, had just called her a Mud blood. She could feel tears coming to her eyes. But just then, something snapped inside Lily Evans. Hurt in her eyes was replaced by something cold. She squared her shoulders. He was from Slytherin. He called just about everyone other than lily who was a Muggle born, a _Mudblood._ So why should she been any different? She didn't know what had possessed her that minute. She barely understood what she was saying, but she made sure she struck a nerve with Potter, before storming off to the Gryffindor girls dormitory, with Marlene rushing behind her and Alice and Mary running to get a teacher to control the situation.

She remained quite normal that day, seeming unfazed by the whole incident. She ate dinner cheerfully enough and left the great hall, oblivious to stares and murmurs of sympathy she was receiving. She went up to her dorm and without the slightest trace of emotion, she climbed into her bed, pulling up her covers and falling into what she hoped was a calm, peaceful and dreamless sleep.

She woke up some time later not quite sure what time it was. She sat up, noticing it was dark outside. Her head was throbbing horribly, and suddenly the weight of the previous day's events crashed down on her. Her breath was caught for a minute and she slowly started weeping, tears spilling out in a rush. Marlene quietly got up from her own bed and walked over to Lily, who spent the night sobbing on Marlene's shoulder.

The next day was the history of magic OWL but Lily was seriously considering flunking it. Could they actually do that? Nah, it was probably too silly of her to have such hopeful thinking. She went down to breakfast, dark circles underneath her eyes. She was hoping for a quick, quiet breakfast so she could get some time to revise but to her utmost annoyance she saw someone approaching her when she was eating. She looked up from her waffle to be face to face with Severus Snape. A number of emotions ran through her. Initially shock followed by immense grief, which was replaced by extreme anger. And she was sure her traitorous face betrayed all these emotions, because she could see the desperation growing by each second on Snape's face. He started to speak. "Lily I'm …"

"No" she interrupted him

"But Lily…"

"No"

"Just listen…."

"No I won't, and just 'Evans' will suffice!" This time she yelled.

"Look Lily I'm extre…."

But Lily had had enough. She quietly got up and curtly told Marlene "I'm sitting outside." Before walking towards the door, wiping tears. Marlene pushed her plate away and started going behind Lily but not before shooting Snape a glare. If eyes could kill, Snape would have probably melted due to the intensity of Marlene's glare.

Marlene caught up with Lily and quietly asked her, "you alright, Lil? " Lily gave a curt nod. Marlene raised an eyebrow. "No really Marly, I'm fine." Lily insisted. Marlene shrugged her shoulders but did not press the matter. They both silently sat under a beech tree, quietly revising for their exam.


	2. Chapter 2

"It was not that bad!" said Alice to the clearly angry Marlene.' I found it quite easy for that matter." she defended. "That's because you people; you, Lily, Potter, Black, Lupin; you guys were born brilliant! It's a wonder you didn't get sorted into Ravenclaw!" Marlene angrily exclaimed, pointing at each person she had just referred to. They were talking about their history of magic exam. Alice started chuckling, while Marlene just shook her head and rolled her eyes. Lily smiled, but only a little. Just then a young third year rushed up to her. He handed her a note. She smiled at him in gratitude and that seemed to ease him. Earlier he was sweaty and shivery. He smiled gratefully at her and walked away, a little more spring in his step. She marveled at the wonders a little smile could do. She unfurled the parchment, and realized it was a note from Dumbledore. He had requested her to report at his office at sharp 4 p.m. along with Marlene. She sighed and passed the note to Marlene.

"Marly get up. We have to meet Professor Dumbledore in another fifteen minutes." Marlene sat up groggily. She glanced at the time and swore under her breath before running to the bathroom. The poor girl was extremely tired; she had fallen asleep immediately after lunch. Meanwhile Lily glanced at the note again. No doubt he wanted to discuss the previous day's event. But what had he meant by the post script? ( _P.S Do you happen to like peppermint fudge?)_ She shook her head at the mysterious ways of Albus Dumbledore and started replaying the previous day's events in her mind. She didn't realize how much time had passed until Marlene's voice broke into her thoughts "Lil, we're late, let's go!" she shrieked grabbing Lily's hand two cloaks from the stand. She tossed one cloak to Lily and soon they were standing outside Dumbledore's office staring helplessly at the stone gargoyle that blocked the entrance. They didn't have a clue about the password. Marlene was pleading with the stone gargoyle, when Lily thought about the first times she'd entered Dumbledore's office. It was when she had been made a prefect. That time they had professor McGonagall. She had simply said "Chocolate frogs" and the gargoyle had rotated, revealing a winding staircase. Unsure of herself, Lily tentatively tried "Peppermint fudge?" The gargoyle slowly started moving while Marlene just gaped at Lily in astonishment. Lily smirked, almost superiorly, as Marlene rolled her eyes and muttered something about the general stupidity of redheads. Lily shrugged still grinning and started walking upstairs, but she missed the smile on Marlene's face, that showed how happy Marlene was to see Lily bounce back to the original smart and confident Lily. Lily was in a clearly better mood for the rest of the evening. Maybe it was because she had let it all spill at Dumbledore's office and the sympathy in those kind, blue eyes and those comforting words had been just what Lily required. Or maybe it was Marlene's personality that had rubbed off on her that suddenly steeled her to the fact that accepting the fact that it was true; it was real and she had to move on, get over it. It was the last exam also making it the last day of school and so she could see a lot of drinks with the seventh years and some on the teachers table. And for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, she actually, properly laughed and she had to credit that to McGonagall for blushing so furiously when she received a compliment from the clearly drunk Hagrid. She returned to her dorm, eagerly anticipating meeting her parents at the same time feeling quite sad at the prospect of not being able to see her friends for three whole months. She entered a quite crowded common room and decided to sit for a while and chat with Marlene, drinking Butterbeer. Just then she saw Potter and Black approaching her from a distance. A hard look came into her eyes as she mentally prepared herself for the upcoming fight. She was about to stand up and let them have it, when Marlene pulled her back down and shook her head, warning Lily. "No Lil." She said "you can't really blame them, you know. After all, all he did was defending you, wasn't it? I know he shouldn't have asked you out that time. Horrible timing if you ask me!" she said trying to lighten the mood "But don't do anythi…."she faltered seeing that Potter and Black had already reached them. She inwardly cursed their splendid timing, but she saw Lily nodding in agreement to what she had just said. Marlene prayed Potter didn't ruin it all. Now he and Black were internally debating how to start. Marlene gave them the slightest of nods. This seemed to give Potter some courage, so he started "Well, we, err, umm ….." he was rudely interrupted by Black who said "We just wanted to apologize, Evans" Potter continued "yeah we're really sorry for what happened yesterday. Not that we should be apologizing but Moony sent us on a guilt trip so here we are. Actually we had warned you about Snape, you know. We knew from the very start that you were being slightly stupid when you ….." James faltered. Sirius had just punched him in the arm and one look at Marlene's face told him that he had probably gone too far. He was just about to cover up, but the damage had been done. A few minutes later, James was dripping in butterbeer, courtesy of Lily Evans who had quite vehemently cursed him before pouring half her mug of Butterbeer on him, and had stormed off to her dorm after a minute leaving a wet James, a cackling Sirius, an angry Marlene and a very shocked crowd of Gryffindors. Silence reigned for at least another minute after she left, but soon chatter broke out in the room. Marlene immediately left to find Lily and Sirius and James took off to their dorms, with the former laughing his head off and the latter continually asking him to shut up. Sirius kept trying to lighten his mood, but James was furious. How dare she embarrass him like this in front of everybody? He was one of the best Quidditch players in the school! He had worked so hard to build his reputation ( _alright that wasn't true. But how could he help it if he was so brilliant and so irresistibly charming?_ ) That didn't matter! He hadn't said anything wrong had he? ( _Maybe a tad bit inconsiderate, but not wrong!)_ James was quite annoyed. He was going to make sure she regretted the incident.

On the other side of the room, Peter Pettigrew had been watching the entire incident with his mouth hanging open, while Remus Lupin quietly analysed the situation. Though they were probably the closest group of friend Hogwarts had ever seen, Remus and Peter had nothing to do with the incident regarding Snape mainly because Remus was a prefect. The least he could do, if he could not stop them, was not interfere. Peter on the other hand was downright scared of doing anything of that sort. Remus couldn't really conclude anything specific but had enough sense to realize that the next year was going to be very interesting. He also realized that he, being the Gryffindor prefect was going to be extremely busy next year. He whispered his observations into Peter's ears as the latter's eyebrows crept higher with every sentence. Peter slowly shook his head." Merlin save us all!" he muttered before going to get another butterbeer.


	3. Chapter 3

James slowly opened his eyes and was initially surprised at the absence of the comforting scarlet and gold walls of his dorm, when suddenly a face with large brown eyes loomed over him. "Ah, young master Potter is finally awake!" James sat up with a start realising it was just his house elf. "Twinker, is James awake? Send him down to breakfast, please. Though now it'll be a brunch. Send him down anyway. And also ask Muffin to sort the clothes please!" James recognised his mother's voice. "Yes, yes missus! Twinker shall do so immediately!" the house elf shrieked. He made sure James was in the bath before going to Muffin. A few minutes later James was down in the Potter's family dining room, where he saw Sirius amicably talking to his mum, Dorea Potter who, judging by how much she was laughing, was very amused by something he was saying. Sirius had run away from home in 4th year because he was treated quite horribly at his home, the Black's family mansion. The Blacks were blood maniacs and were on the side of Voldemort. Sirius was like the black sheep of the family, his view on such matters completely opposite to what his family was professing, leading to quite a lot of fights between Sirius and his mother, which eventually led to Sirius running away from home. The Potters, on the other hand, had readily accepted Sirius, almost making him a brother to James. He walked over to them and they immediately quietened. "Good morning. What's going on?" he asked, clearly baffled at the strange look his mother was giving him. "Nothing at all dear. Sit down. Would you like some bacon?" she asked, gesturing to a seat next to her. James sat down serving himself some toast and bacon, when his mum asked him, "would you like some butterbeer dear?" James shook his head in disgust" mum, who drinks butterbeer for breakf…" he faltered when he saw his mum's face, her eyes glinting mischievously, not quite unlike his own. Just then Sirius cleared his throat and said, "Well, Mrs Potter, James had a lot of butterbeer last year. I'm pretty sure that novelty has worn off. Especially after the last day. James was practically dripping in butterbeer!" Mrs Potter tried her hardest to supress her laughter, but the minute she caught Sirius's eye, they both burst out into laughter, Sirius almost toppling out of his chair. "Argh!" James let out a frustrated yell and stormed out of the room. 'Don't worry, he is hungry. He will come back.' She assured Sirius, who had almost started behind James. He did come back. But instead of sitting down, he grabbed his plate, filled it with everything he could find on the table and stormed back to his room. Sirius couldn't help but start chuckling again and Mrs Potter shook her head in amazement. James was a very easy going and laid back person. She was reminded of her own petty quarrels with Charlus, who was now her husband. _Well, we redheads can be quite annoying sometimes, can't we?_

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The Evans' home was very beautiful. Located in a very picturesque place, it was like a neighbourhood from a fairy tale. On bright summer mornings, you could spot several birds and small critters in and around the neighbourhood. But unfortunately, Petunia Evans was home.

"LILY!" screamed Petunia, loud enough to ensure anybody within a 5 mile radius to get startled. "What in the world is that owl doing in my room?" she screeched, causing the youngest daughter of Rose and William Evans to rush towards her elder sister. Lily apologised before shooting a glare at her owl, Artemis. The owl gave an almost indignant hoot in response. Lily picked up Artemis and walked back to her room with a straight face, not even turning back once to look at Petunia. The minute she reached her room, she burst out into laughter almost dropping Artemis. She quickly shut the door and handed her owl some snacks. " Well done Artemis! Perfect, as usual." she said, quite perfectly imitating Professor Slughorn. "Though next time," she added in an undertone " make sure she regrets not locking her closet!" the owl hooted almost as if in salute and Lily sat down on her bed to finish her charms essay. She could still hear Petunia ranting and her mother trying to calm her down. Just then she heard a call pull into the driveway and a few seconds later the doorbell rang. "I'll get it!" Lily yelled, before thundering down the staircase and throwing open the door to let her dad enter into the living room, when Lily flung herself onto him. Jovially chuckling, he set himself on the couch. "So how was your school year?" Her Mum had also come down by then and had taken a seat right next to her. Lily immediately started ranting about how horrid her school year was and how horrible her exams were and how irritating her housemates and the Slytherins were. Before she realised it, she had started ranting about James Potter, continuously going on about what a prick he was, how he was so arrogant and annoying and so on. By the time she had finished, her dad was looking quite baffled but her mum seemed quite unfazed. She pulled Lily up to her feet and said smilingly, "Let's leave your dad alone for some time shall we? After all that is quite a lot to comprehend after a long day of work" as they both went into the kitchen, leaving a very confused William Evans on the couch, Lily noticed her mum was still smiling. Lily was shocked. "Mum I just told you so much about why I think my life is horrid. So can you please explain why exactly you are smiling?" she said indignantly. "Well, I'm not sure I completely understood anything you said earlier, dear. So who is this young man? James Potter?" Mrs Potter tried to keep a straight face but she couldn't as she tried to supress her laughter, Lily finally understood her "nooo-oo-oo-oo-oo" she yelled as she ran up the stairs leading to her room. "Holy mother of myrtle, never in a million, billion, trillion years! Of all people James Potter. In the name of Merlin what is wrong with this world!" she shook her wondering why she had even met a James Potter.

A few weeks later, Lily woke up to the sound of tapping on her window. She looked outside to see an excited owl outside her window. She let the owl in, fed it some snacks and after relieving it of its letter, she sent it back. She opened the parchment. It was from Alice

 _Dear Lily_

 _Hello Lily-kins! How are you? Marlene is quite upset since her owl was injured when she sent me a letter so she is terribly sorry she can't send you any letters this time. She specifically asked me to mention this to you, which is why I'm doing sorry this letter is so short but there is not much happening on my side so…no big letter with drama for your entertainment!_

 _So how's life with tuney darling? Oh, forget I even asked. We are going to diagon alley this Friday, right? We (me and Marlene) will be flooing to your house, and then pick up Mary and Emmaline at the Vance's place, before going to diagon alley. Can't wait to see you! Ooh and don't tell anyone, I want it to be a surprise, Frank Longbottom asked me out! Loads of love to Mr and Mrs Evans!_

 _Yours sincerely_

 _Alice_

Lily smiled. She was missing her friends. Just then another owl flew in, this time carrying a letter from Hogwarts. As she took the letter from its leg, she could hear Petunia screaming from downstairs about 'stupid owls and their freakish owners'. Lily couldn't wait to get back to the castle.

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A few days later, Lily, Marlene, Alice and Mary were found eating ice cream at Florean Fortesque's, for free, courtesy of Alice's uncle. They had just finished, and were aimlessly chatting, when Alice folded her arms and said "Guys I have something to tell you." Lily started giggling uncontrollably, and Alice took a deep breath. "Around a week ago, I met Frank and….." Soon the group of girls was squealing loudly, in utmost delight. Passers-by were turning around in surprise at the commotion, but Marlene was completely unconcerned about the fact that people were staring at her for loudly screeching "I knew it! I knew it!" and then proceeding to cackle loudly. Alice was currently being grilled by Mary, while Lily simply sat and watched. The entire evening was spent catching up on Alice's new relationship. Mary's active, gossipy social life, Marlene's zero change in tomboyish nature and Lily's sister, Petunia's antics.


End file.
